On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (7)
-
Xittntittrt
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Xittntittrt
Xittntittrt
Untitled Article
Considering our obligations to the Literature , Science , and Philospphy of the Greeks , it is only a common feeling of gratitude and reverential love ivhiph must ever make Greece more interesting to us than its absolute political significance may warrant . When , therefore , we announce that a powerful movement is being organized among the Greeks , in pursuit of a great object , —great even if chimerical , —the establishment of a free Greek empire , with Constantinople as its seat , we are assured , beforehand , of the sympathy of all lovers of Literature . The pamphlet which has just reached
us from Athens— Quelques mots sur la question d'Orient—is only one among the many indications of the existence of such a movement . The feeling of Hellenic nationality , never extinguished , is unusually active just now ; it has got its society , furnished with money , and all the machinery of propagande , and its object is to stop the encroachments of Russia , in the East , by the establishment of a powerful Hellenic State-r Christian , but Christian according to the Oriental mode j that is to say , according to the only form which Christianity has been able to develope in the East .
The writer of this pamphlet declares , that in Greece there is a French party and an English party , but that a Russian p * arty , properly so called * does not exist . He , moreover , calls to mind that the inhabitants of Greece form but a small portion of the Hellenic race . Epirus , Thessaly , the greater part of Macedonia and Thrace , and , above all , the City of Constantinople and its environs , all the islands of the Archipelago , Candia , Rhodes , Cyprus , are inhabited by Greeks and Mahometans , the latter everywhere in minority . In Asiatic Turkey , where the Mahometans are in majority , all the Christians belong to the Hellenic race . In the rest of the Ottoman Empire , the Greek element everywhere predominates .
Having pointed the existence of the requisite elements for a Greek empire , the writer proceeds to argue , and with great force , the reasons which render such a thing imperative , as the only efficient means of " balancing power" in the East , and resisting the influence of Russia . We may also mention memoriter that two English pamphlets have appeared on this subject , viz ., Russian Turkey j or , a Greek Empire the inevitable solution of the Eastern Question , by G . D . P . ;—and The Eastern Question in relation to the Restoration of the Greek Empire , by An Inquirer .
Untitled Article
One of the most important books that have appeared for a long while , is the elaborate Traits de Chimie Anatomique , by Drs . Charles Robin and F . Vebdeil , in three large volumes , with an atlas . As the title implies , only the scientific reader can be expected to take much interest in such a work . We mention it for the sake of those whom it may directly concern , and also for the sake of calling attention to it as the most important applipation of Comte ' s general doctrines to a special science . The authors are disciples of Comte , and their work is saturated with his influence .
TJie advertisement columns have already announced the forthcoming abridgment of Comte ' s Positive Philosophy , by Miss Martineau , a work which will enable the general public to dispense with the labour of studying the original , for Miss Martineau has " condensed and freely translated " the whole of the six bulky volumes which contain the Philosophic Positive , and all who know her admirable powers of popular exposition will bp prepared for a work of the very highest interest . Another , and altogether different book , is also in the press—Comte ' s Philosophy of the Sciences . The articles on Comte which appeared in the Leader last year , form the basis of this work , which will appear in one volume of Boiin ' s Scientific Library .
Untitled Article
It is gratify ing to record that a second edition of Alexander Smith s Poems is to appear next week—gratifying , because the large and rapid sale of the first edition ( two thousand copies ) is proof—if proof were needed that real poetry is no " drug , " whatever the imitation may be . We have taken too great an interest in the success of this young poet , not to feel pleased that our predictions are realized .
Untitled Article
VON BAEE ON THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS . Scientific Memoirs , selected , from the Transactions of Foreign Academies of Science F ^ uSfai ^ NatUral ^^ XK- S IV ^ We have already directed the attention of scientific readers to this valuable quarterly publication , and now call their attention to a particular article on a tmbjoot of immense importance , and of very general interest —the Development Hypothesis . Mr . Huxloy was wisely prompted when he began the translation of those passages from Von Baers great work on Embryology—a work so ofton talked of aud ho Jittjo read I In Parts II and VL \ . of tho Scientific Memoirs , the reader will Jind tho mam r ? a-Ho ' ns against the Development Hypothesis which Von ^ aer adduces m ! . ;„ vZ !* n «; ni' « l «< t , nxa < : nl ,. uihtti iifsr Thiere , forming one of tho most legitimate
and " powerful chains of argument which that topic has elicited on tho adverse Hide . Holding , m wo do , the Development Hypothesis , though neither in tho form advocated by Lamarck , nor precisely m tljat of tho Vestures—wo welcome this strong adversary , and chum for him a hearing . Von Buor ' s arguments are irresistible against Lamarck s main positions of serial development , and tho unlimited influence of external conditions . That tho animal kingdom is unisonal , —that its progression is senal .-that each group , or type , forms a link in tho chain -must bo given up . It was the first rudeeketcb , of tb , e true theory , True enough , W its broad
outlines , it is found to he inapcurate when we descend to details . The conception of a series is , however , by no means necessary in the Development JEEypothesis . Again , with respect to the influence of external conditions , there is no doubt Lamarck and the early speculators on this subject , first awakening to a perception of the immense significance of the character played by the medium in which the organism developed itself , did very much exaggerate its importance , and forgot ' the indispensable union of the two factors —organism and medium—an their investigations of the one . Before their
time , naturalists only directed attention to the organism , overlooking the medium ; on the other hand , ' they overlooked the organism in attending to the medium . Yon Baer himself does not , we think , keep at the true philosophic point of view in this respect , but he is enabled to triumph over the exaggerations of Lamarck . In asserting that the oi « ganism has a power of adapting itself to new conditions , and that this adaptation can only take place through a modification of structure , the Biologist announces a positive Law ; the question , How far tkese modifications can be carried , and how rapidly ? may remain for separate discussion . It is
a question of limits . While , therefore , wefullyadmitthe validity of VonBaer ' sfactsandmany of his arguments , we must declare them powerful only against the upholders of uniserial development , powerless against the more modern conception of the Development Hypothesis . In tho old unconditional thesis , viz ., that the embryo of the higher animals passes through all the forms of the lower animals—or , to use the language of Geoffroy St . Hilaire and Serres , that embryology is a transitory zoology ; and zoology a permanent embryology—we detect only the first broad sketch of the truth , which minuter investigation proves to be inaccurate . With Von Baer , and most modern embryologists , we join in rejecting this thesis , as a mere tentative effort to express the law . The fact that the embryo is , from the first , the specific embryo of a specific animal , and developed under specific conditions , is sufficient to show that it never can , under any circumstances ,
be another specific animal , but can only more or less resemble it . In admitting this , however , we cut the ground from under Von Baer ' s feet . His arguments are cannonballs against the old Hypothesis ; against the new they are paper pellets . It is absolutely necessary for his victory that the battle should be fought on the ground he has chosen , and he has chosen , a sandbank . He argues against this Hypothesis : " It is a law of nature that the development of the individual essentially consists in passing through the permanent forms of lovrer animals . " But this Hypothesis we reject , as contradictory to reason and to fact . We accept all he says against it .
" If the law we are engaged in investigating were correct , no conditions which are permanent only in the higher animals could be a transitory stage in the development of particular lower forms . But n . great number of such conditions are demonstrable . We cannot indeed discover them in the course of human development , since we know no higher organization . But the Mammalia afford examples enough . In all the jaws are at first as short , as they are permanently in Man ; the parietal ridge is developed very late in animals which are provided with it , while , on the other hand , it is wanting in the highest forms . Instances of this kind multiply the further we descend . We have already introduced Birds speaking , in order to insist upon a multitude of previously-known relations in which the embryo of the Bird agrees with the adult Mammal . We can bring
forward still more . The brain of Birds in tho earliest third of embryonic life is much more similar to tho brain of Mammals than in the adult condition . Tho corpora quadrigemjna have not descended , the olfactory bulb is hollow and thick , and there is even a kind of fornix present . The heel of tho Bird developes itself from many cartilages into a single bone . The eyes of the Cluck are at first ' placed nearer together than subsequently , and give it a humanized face . Young Lizards have a very large brain . Tlie larva of tho Frog has a true beak liko Birds , and before it loses its tail , an intestine of a length such as is only to be ; found permanently in a few forms of Mammals . The Frog larva is at first
tail-less , a condition thnt occurs only among the highest Mammals ; even the adult Frog has an internal tail , for wo must so designate its long caudal vertebra . The Myriapods , tho Mites , and the Hydrnchno have , when they creep out of the egg , only three pair of feet , liko the perfect condition of Insects which undergo metamorphosis . Even if , contrary to my opinion , it bo maintained that tins Araclmida are more highly developed than the true Insects , yet everyone will nllow that insects with ft metamorphosis are higher developments of the Myriapoda . Such cases as these should by no means occur , if tho development of tho higher animals consisted in parsing through tho forma of tho lower onea . "
Wo may accept this without pausing to question liow far it aflecta the argument , becauso granting it we grant , nothing wo ever denied . The Development Hypothesis does not need the uniserial conception ; it only needs theso conceptions , viz ., tho law of organic 'modification in adaptation to circumstances ; the law of the identity of tho organic process ; and tho law of epigencsis . Consequently , it will accept Von Baor ' s facts , and cite in testimony of its own truth what ho admits in the following : — " Cun , however , no law be discovered to regulate tho development of the individual as tho possessor of a special orgunie form ? I believe thero can , and I shall endeavour to educe it in tho course- of t | io following re-marks . The embryos of Mammalia , of Birds , Lizards , juul Snakes , probably also of Chcloniii , nro in their curliest states exceedingly liko one another , both m a whole and iu tho
mode of development of their parts ; ho much mo , in fact , that wo can oftou distinguish . tho embryos only by their size . In my possession are two little onjbryo * in spirit , whoso names I have omitted to ultncji , and at present I am quito uuablo to « ny to what class they belong . They Jimy bo LizunLs , or small ISirdH , or very young Mammalia , ho complete in tho wimihirity in the inodo of formation of tho heud and trunk in these animals . Tho extremities , however , arts still absent in those embryos . Hut oven if they existed in tho earliest stjigo of their development , wo should loam nothing ; for tho loot of Liziirds and Mammals , tho wingu and foot of Birds , no loss than tho hands and foot of Man , all ariso from tho Hiune fundainoutul form . Tho further , therefore , wo recede in trucing tho formation of tho Vertebruta , tho more similar we find tho embryos in their totality and in their separate pnrls . At iirsfc those characters gradually present themselves which iiuljcato the greater , and ttubwNjueutJy tUo #£ which mark tho Bumllor , Uwisiona of tho Vortobrata ,
Untitled Article
Critics are notthe legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—tney interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Beview .
Untitled Article
JpiTE § 5 , 1 $ 53 . ] THE LEADER . 917
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), June 25, 1853, page 617, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1992/page/17/
-